Been meaning to check out Elton John's supposed golden years for quite a while now, having been tipped off by more than one person in the recent past that his material from that period is pretty good.

So I've spent the morning listening to the string of albums he did between 1971 and 1975. By the sound of it, he was on a serious hot streak at the time, sometimes knocking out two records a year and, in the case of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, a double set.

I've got Honky Chateau on at the moment. It sounds like a cross between ragtime and early Bowie. There's one track called I Think I'm Going To Kill Myself which is like an even more jaunty version of East St Louis Toodle-Oo by Steely Dan.

I hate Elton John in general, he's an annoying whingeing bastard who hasn't come up with a decent track since Kiss The Bride, but some of this music is terrific. It's hard to believe it's by the same person who spent most of the 1980s knocking out shite like Leather Jackets. You can tell he hit the coke harder than ever before after getting married.



The story behind Philadelphia Freedom is funny. It was originally conceived as a tribute song for Billie Jean King, who was one of Elton's heroines and who competed for the Philadelphia Freedoms team. So he takes the music to Bernie Taupin and asks him to come up with some lyrics. Taupin exclaims: "I can't write a song about fucking tennis!" Eventually it was reworked with some patriotic flannel about the flag and so forth. It's a great tune though.

He made some fantastic music in that period.

Someone Saved My Life Tonight is a brilliant song that deserves more attention, IMO. Based on Elton's suicide bid - he didn't write the words, but he sings them with such passion.

"sweet freedom whispered in my ear, you're a butterfly ..."

That song has helped me walk out of bad situations, not just relationships but crap jobs and one-sided friendships. Love it.

I've been thinking exactly he same as AB describes in his opening para for a while now, having only had an old double compilation of Elton's for many years. He's tipped me over the edge to go and listen to the whole lot from the period.

Check this out, from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyGU-CJulTs

He really was off his fucking head at the time.

EJ was one of my favorites and his 69-75 (Empty Sky to Capt. Fantastic - not as crazy about Rock of the Westies) period is awesome. Cranked out many albums and singles almost all of which are top notch. Even the b-sides were usually brilliant.

As the core band broke up or we're fired, the quality went way down. Plus, way too much drugs and buckets of cash led to disposable stuff.

In addition, each of his albums were superbly packaged w/ gatefold sleeve, lyrics, booklets and posters.

It was this scene from Almost Famous that made me re-evaluate him.

Before the coke blunted his creativity, he definitely had his moments.

Agree with most of what's on this thread. Interested to hear where exactly OTFers consider is the tipping point from quality to crap. Personally I think Song for Guy was the last of the quality singles. Albums-wise the latest one I have is Captain Fantastic which I really like. I think Blue Moves was next - anyone heard that?

Blue Moves is awful. My parents used to have a copy of it.

He got the band back together, including Taupin, in 1983 for Too Low For Zero. It's not exactly Astral Weeks but it's still pretty good. More or less everything he did after that point is terrible.

Come Down in Time and Love Song, both from Tumbleweed Connection two of his finest ever.

Though I have not heard much of anything he's done from 1985 to present, Captain and the Kid has mostly quality songs and also an older sound that is far preferable.

TLFZ ain't bad. Blue Moves is ponderous.

One of my favorite-ever gigs was a 1982 show which was just the four-piece band of Elton, Dee Murray, Nigel Olsson, and Davey Johnstone. 2 and a half hrs of great songs.

What MsD said. 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight' is a belter of a tune, full of self-knowledge and regret. Didn't even make the Top 20 over here.

Elt was on fire between 1972 and 1975. It all started going awry around Blue Moves, as has been suggested. There were still one or two decent moments after this period, though, including 'Ego' - a long-forgotten 1978 single that I'm told can now be found on the remastered A Single Man.

Of his early albums, I suppose if I were only allowed one, it would be Goodbye Yellow Brick Road as it is superb and a double. If I could only have one single album it would likely be Captain Fantastic. Tumbleweed Connection and Don't Shoot Me would be close seconds.

Analogue Bubblebath II wrote:


Kiss The Bride? Seriously? That's quite generous...

Jah Womble wrote:


Thirding that. Probably my favourite Elton song. And I'd agree that after Captain Fantastic the albums went downhill, though I don't mind Blue Moves as much as some others, it would seem

And fourthed. Someone Saved My Life Tonight is a fucking brilliant track.

I've always viewed Elton John's catalogue like I've viewed Queen's - the 70's output was superior, but some of the 80's hits are damn good.

I've been mentally trying to go over all the albums he did from 69-75 and it really is impressive especially knowing that he toured extensively as well.

1969 Empty Sky
1970 Elton John
1970 Tumbleweed Connection
*1971 11-17-70
1971 Friends Soundtrack
1971 Madman Across The Water
1972 Honky Chateau
1973 Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player
1973 Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (double)
1974 Caribou
1974 Greatest Hits
1975 Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy
1975 Rock Of The Westies
*1976 Here And There
1976 Blue Moves (double)

So, 15 albums in 8 years. One greatest hits, two live ones, but two were double albums. I did not include a greatest hits from 1974.

He doesn't let up too much after that, but more and more compilations and soundtracks:

1977 Greatest Hits Volume 2
1978 A Single Man
1979 Victim Of Love
1980 21 At 33
1981 The Fox
1982 Jump Up
1983 Too Low For Zero
1984 Breaking Hearts
1985 Ice On Fire
1986 Leather Jackets
1987 Live In Australia With The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
1988 Reg Strikes Back
1989 Sleeping With The Past
1990 To Be Continued
1992 The One
1992 Rare Masters
1993 Duets
1994 The Lion King Soundtrack
1995 Made In England
1996 Love Songs
1997 The Big Picture
1999 Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida
1999 The Muse Soundtrack
2000 The Road To El Dorado Soundtrack
2000 One Night Only
2001 Songs From The West Coast
2002 Greatest Hits 1970-2002
2004 Peachtree Road
2006 The Captain And The Kid
2010 The Union
2011 Gnomeo And Juliet Soundtrack

1974ddr wrote:


Well, compared to his very best songs, I'll grant you that it's a dud. But compared to what he was doing for about six years beforehand, it's a gem. Good strong riff on the chorus, energetic vocal performance, decent production.

And if it came on the radio today, it would stand out hugely, because almost all commercial pop music has now turned to shit.

However, on reflection, it's not his last ever worthwhile song. I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That is a decent tune.

Jesus, there's some serious dreck on the bottom half of Cal Alamein's list. It's fairly obvious that the man was a spent force by the age of 29.

Reg Strikes Back was acclaimed as a huge triumph and return to form at the time, but this was because everybody felt sorry for Elton after what the Sun had put him through in 1986 and 1987 with all the unfounded rent-boy stuff. They went after him like maniacs for more than a year and the whole story was a pile of shit with zero reliable witnesses.

The Sun then made it worse by claiming that Elton had had all his Rottweilers' vocal cords severed to render them unheard to unwary burglars at his estate. The photographer went out there the next day to discover that all the dogs were Alsatians, not Rottweilers, and that they were barking their heads off.

Elton got £1 million in the end -- a huge sum in 1988 -- and a SORRY ELTON! headline on page 1, alongside an article which made it unavoidably clear how much he adored his pets. The Sun publicly blamed the whole thing on "a teenager living in a world of fantasy".

None of which renders Reg Strikes Back as anything but a woefully uninspired, lazy record by a man who was well past it.

Literally as I type, Elton has just sued another Murdoch paper, the Times, over a tax-avoidance story. Reg strikes back again!

I'll stick up for Kiss The Bride. Always had a soft spot for that one and it was the follow-up single to I'm Still Standing, which to me was the last genuinely great pop song he ever released. The final gasps of any energy and urgency he could muster up for his music.

Song For Guy is inextricably linked (ie, ruined) with the 'obit' playlist commercial radio stations switched to after Diana's death.

But what was the real nadir of EJ's discography? I'll go for the title track to Made In England - Staggeringly awful. He was about as relevant in 1995 as Frank Ifield would have been during the height of Glam.